Love Bats Last (The Heart of the Game) (37 page)
Read Love Bats Last (The Heart of the Game) Online
Authors: Pamela Aares
Tags: #Romance, #woman's fiction, #baseball, #contemporary, #sports
When love’s the game, you can’t play it safe…
All-Star shortstop Matt Darrington has more than a problem. His wife died, and now he’s juggling a too-smart-for-her-britches six-year-old and the grueling pace of professional baseball. Worse, his daughter is mom shopping. When they explore a local ranch, she decides the beautiful, free-spirited tour guide is premium mom material. Matt thinks the sexy guide looks like Grade-A trouble.
Alana Tavonesi loves her cosmopolitan life in Paris. But when she inherits the renowned Tavonesi Olive Ranch, she has to return to California and face obligations she never wanted. Selling the place is her first instinct, but life at the ranch begins to crack her open, exposing the dreams hidden inside her heart.
On a lark she leads a ranch tour, where she meets Matt Darrington. His physical power and a captivating sensual appeal fire her in a way no man ever has, but he has a kid—and being a stepmom is a responsibility Alana will never be ready for. Still . . . she can’t keep her mind or her hands off him.
When Matt’s daughter goes missing from a kid’s camp at the ranch, Alana organizes the search effort, knowing from experience the areas a bright child would be drawn to explore. As she and Matt work together to search for the little girl, Alana discovers that father and daughter have won her heart. Yet it may be too late for love…
Fielder's Choice is available online as a print or eBook at all of your favorite booksellers.
Book Four in the Heart of the Game series
Hiding her identity was a small price to pay for freedom . . .
Heiress Cara Barrington fled the opulent world of her rich and famous family to carve out an idyllic existence on the California Coast. In the sleepy town of Albion Bay, she’s embraced the simple way of living she's always craved. No one knows her identity, and she’s free from the pressures of wealth . . . until her sexy new neighbor threatens the unpretentious world she’s worked so hard to build.
All-Star athlete Ryan Rea enjoys his high-profile status. He’s used to charming his way into the heart and bed of any woman he desires while keeping his own heart secure behind a steel wall. When he meets Cara, she throws him a curveball—she’s unlike any woman he’s ever met, and he has to have her.
Cara’s growing attraction to Ryan endangers her hard-won anonymity, and when she inherits the family business, she must choose between the world she left behind and her new life in the community she’s come to cherish. But facing up to her responsibilities could destroy her freedom and cost her the greatest love she’s ever known.
Love on the Line is available online as a print or eBook at all of your favorite booksellers.
Acknowledgments
I owe oceans of gratitude to the many people who helped transform this story from an inspiration into a published work. The talented writers at the San Francisco Area chapter of Romance Writers of America shared wisdom and encouragement, and I am especially grateful to Tina Folsom, Bella Andre, Monica McCarty and Carolyn Jewel for their advice and help. My editor, Beth Hill at A Novel Edit, made sure that every word served the story, and cover designer Jane Dixon-Smith created covers for the entire Heart of the Game series that sizzle with life.
I learned about the dedicated work being done to improve the lives of wild marine mammals from the staff of The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. Dennis DeDomenico and Sandi Brod of Rock Wren Wines provided timely advice about viniculture and vine pruning. Any deviation from their collective wisdom is in service to the story or an embellishment of my imagination.
My dear friend Cornelia has the best ear for story of anyone I know, and I thank her for her patience and clarity. I am also blessed to have friends and family who respect a writer's need for time to get words onto the page—if only my cats were as understanding when I shooed them from the keyboard!
I am deeply grateful to my husband, Bruce, who was willing to talk fastballs and stolen bases before his first cup of coffee and whose love and encouragement from the very beginning made it possible to bring these characters to life.
And many, many thanks to my readers, whose enthusiasm for my stories is like honey to the soul.
About the Author
When
PAMELA AARES
released her first romance novel –
Jane Austen and the Archangel
, critics and readers raved and fans clamored for a contemporary romance series. Love Bats Last is the first book in the sensual, empowering and fast-paced contemporary series, The Heart of the Game, featuring alpha-male All-Stars and the strong women they come to love.
Before becoming a romance author, Pamela produced and wrote award winning films and radio shows. She knows without a doubt that romance powers stories that empower, transport, entertain and blaze a path to wholeness. Pamela holds a master's degree from Harvard and lives in the wine country of California with her husband and two curious cats. If not behind her computer you can find her reading her favorite romances, hiking the beaches or savoring life with friends.
You can visit Pamela on the web at
www.PamelaAares.com
. She'd love to hear from you!
Love Bats Last
Reading Group Topics
for Questions and Discussion
1.
With
Love Bats Last
, Pamela Aares has garnered praise for her humorous and spot-on dialogue that brings her strong heroines and the top-of-their game, All-star heroes to life. What is it about her dialogue that works so well?
2.
If you had to distill the theme and essential storyline of Love Bats Last into three sentences for a write-up
The New York Times Book Review
, what would you say?
3.
What is the
significance of the title
?
4.
What were the
themes of
Love Bats Last
?
5.
How much of yourself and/or your friends do you see in the characters?
6.
What
motivates
a given character’s actions? Do you agree with the choices that Jackie and Alex make? Can you relate to their motivations?
7.
Were there any moments where you disagreed with the choices of any of the characters? What would you have done differently?
8.
What past influences are shaping the actions of the characters in the story?
9.
How does the way the characters see themselves, differ from how others see them?
10.
What
advice
would you have given to Jackie or Alex?
11.
With which character would you most want have lunch? Why?
12.
Can you
pick out a passage
that strikes you as particularly profound or interesting--or perhaps something that sums up the central dilemma of the book?
13.
What
scene resonated
most with you personally in either a positive or negative way? Why?
14.
What scene was the
most pivotal
for the book? How do you think the story would have changed had that scene not taken place?
15.
What do you think will
happen next
to the main characters?
16.
Have you read
Pamela Aares
other books
? Can you discern a similarity—in theme, writing style, structure—between them? Or are they completely different?
17.
Did you
learn something new
reading this book? Did it broaden your perspective? Have any of YOUR views or thoughts changed after reading this book?
18.
What
surprised
you the most about the book?
19.
If you were to
talk with the author
, what would you want to know? (Pamela enjoys talking with book clubs. Contact her via her website to see if your reading group can set up a phone chat.)
Bonus Question:
The theme of the power of dreams runs through the series the
Heart of the Game
. Many people believe that dreams pull us into the future, tug us toward our deepest desires and help us become the most vibrant person we can be.
In taking the journeys with the heroes and heroines in each book of the series, Pamela invites you to consider your own life dreams--not just those when you sleep at night, but the daydreams and yearnings that, no matter how complicated or busy life can be, still have an empowering voice in our lives.
How does what you love or what you dream about fuel your life?
Enhance Your Book Club!
Take yourselves out to a ball game! The game might look very different after seeing it through the eyes of Jackie and Alex.
Visit a local or regional wildlife rehabilitation center in your area. Call in advance and perhaps the veterinarian might have time to talk with your group.
Visit a local or regional winery if there is one nearby. Imagine trying to keep a growing operation on the scale of Trovare going and have a career in Major League Baseball
and
fall in love!
LOVE BATS LAST
Copyright 2013 Pamela Aares
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews. For information address SeaStar Press P.O. Box 750924, Petaluma, CA 94975-0924.
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Cover design by
www.jdsmith-design.com
Interior Layout by
www.formatting4U.com
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental
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